"Crocop: I was lost" Although the KO he suffered looked deadly, Mirko's head doesn't hurt him. But, he is having problems with a swollen right ankle. "I won't be doing anything for 2 weeks, won't even drink vitamins and proteins. I have to clean up my organism. Full of spite, I wanted to train the same evening I got back to Croatia, but I know it would be contraproductive", Mirko says. He is feeling guilty for letting down his fans, especially those who came to Manchester to support him. And he doesn't care about those who took pleasure in his calvary. "I don't have to justify myself to anyone. Besides being an amateur boxer for 2 years, thus being paid trips to a few tournaments, the country's sport system didn't invest in me. I am my own investment." He doesn't have an excuse for his bad performance. He can't even explain what happened to him. Although, he can manage to describe the state he was in. "I don't have an alibi. It happens in cycles to me. It looks like I blew myself out after winning the Pride OWGP belt. I wasn't happy even with my first UFC performance. This time I also didn't decide to engage an exchange of punches. I didn't have warrior spirit in me. I was lost." He adds that besides no initiative, he also didn't have a strategy. "All of that didn't have anything to do with the quality of my preparations and the shape I was in, but it had to do with my focus on the fight and my opponent. Before the fight I was nervous, I was thinking about all sorts of stupid things, I was just in a bad state. Unfortunately, I seem to be that type. I need a rough wake-up call in order to focus again." He says he didn't even see the high-kick: "After 3 or 4 elbows to the temple, I had blurry vision when I stood up." Mirko is announcing changes in his training session. He is going to introduce elbows and elbow defence, which wasn't present in Pride. "I'm not used to elbows, but that's my problem. I'm also going to do exercises for my injured ankles."
yes, i hope it does. i think it's a good sign that he recognised his flaws and things he needs to work on.
Do you watch Pride? The simple answer is yes, these guys do warrant everything they have gotten sice coming to the ufc. Sure, Mirko lost, but crazy ass upsets have been happening all over the last few events. Gonzaga earned his win. He slipped one in on the button. That doesn't mean that Cro Cop still isn't one of the best in the world. There are many cases where UFC fighters have gone over to pride only to realize they have just stepped up in class. Jackson too. He has already beaten Liddell. He can probably do it again. Everyone talks about how much better Liddell is now than then, but the same is true for Rampage. And what the Iceman has against him is he hasn't had many opponents like Jackson since then. In his weight, in the UFC, Chuck is definitely the man. That is why he needs some outside competition.
i disagree about rampage's current performance. in his last fight against eastman, sure he won, but he wasn't the rampage that fought so well in pride. his jabs were too short, and he was a bit hesitant, something rampage is known not to do. i really hope on may 26 we'll be seeing the good old rampage that we've been used to seeing. if he fights hesitantly against chuck like he did with eastman, he has no chance. i have my money on rampage though, since he is considered the underdog in this fight, but if he wins, it's far from an upset.
Yeah...picking the underdog in main events seems to be the way to go with these past few UFC events. And I agree, Rampage didn't look very good against Eastman(he said so himself, really). While Chuck has been going fairly steady, with the exception of his recent illness, he's been steadily training and fighting strong. I really hope Ramapge comes in hungry, motivated, and ready for this one...he's got a TITLE shot here.
Its a HUGE fight for both of them. Rampage is the one guy left to have beaten Chuck and not to be beaten in a rematch. If Chuck beats him he'll have cemented him reputation as one of the best MMA fighters of all time. For Rampage this is a chance to capture a major title, something he failed to do in Pride. This could be his last realistic chance to get to the very top. I think as an all round fighter Rampage is more skilled. However Chuck is very very very hard (impossible?) to KO and very hard to takedown. And he's only got to land one good punch and its over, thats true of most fighters of course but he does it ALOT. I think it'll ultimately come down to mental attitude. Rampage's used to great, pure focus but he hasn't been the same since losing to Wanderlei. Chuck's is ALWAYS superb, he'd not called the Iceman for nothing! I hope it lives up to the billing, could be the fight of the year!
Once again, it sure didn't look that way in their last match. Yeah, I know, it was a while ago. But it's still far from "impossible."
I watch some PRIDE, but not a lot. I have seen Cro-Cop and Rampage in action prior to their UFC debuts and was suitably impressed. Both of their UFC debuts were "nothing special" though and I can't see why they would get pushed to title shots before they were really "ready". I am definately not putting either one down, they are among the best... but when looking at their debut matches I have to wonder if giving them a few more matches and some time before shoving them into the title shots would have been a better idea. Short term - yes, it's great to see these guys getting title shots and hardcore UFC fans will probably enjoy seeing them get beat by their "UFC" guys. I would rather see them get some more matches under their belt in UFC and really be ready for a title shot. To be blunt, Cro-cop won his debut but really didn't look that good. Instead of throwing him against a really good guy with a title shot on the next match, it wouldn't have hurt to give him a few "easier" matches to build him up. Rampage didn't look "awesome" against Eastman... I'd rather see him get his "groove" back and have a couple of AWESOME matches against some lower ranked guys before challenging the Iceman. I'd hate to see guys like Cro-cop and Rampage thrown in and used so soon when they could be built up and used when ready, allowing them a better chance of being around longer.
CroCop walked right through Eddie Sanchez like it was nothing. What more did you expect? A no-touch knockout?
The debuts of Crocop and Rampage weren't exactly stellar, it's a fair point. However, it was tricky for Crocop to get a highlight reel KO on a dude who spent the whole fight running away and Rampage has only just got himself back with a proper training camp, having been without one for quite a while Rampage himself asked that he get some more tune-up fights before going against Liddell so either the UFC didn't listen or they threw a ton of money at him. Should he lose (I think he's still the blueprint example of how to beat Liddell and he's got a great training camp right now, but he's not had much time with them), the rubber match will probably do huge numbers, which is how I can see the UFC working it
Hmmmm.... now that you mention it, yes. I wanted to see a highlight reel knockout - he was a guy coming in with a huge buildup put up against a guy who wasn't expected to be any sort of real challenge. Yes, I wanted to see a big bad KO... sort of like Gonzaga did to him. For a match that got him a #1 contender's match, I just wasn't impressed. As Sever mentions, there are a lot of "little things" going on that doesn't really put them at the top of their game. Why not let them fight for a bit, get used to the cage and get back up to peak ability and then turn them loose on the champions?
Everyone are generals after the battle.... Why? They didn't KNOW! Thats why. And i bet they would make that same "mistake" (call it that if you want) if Fedor ever signes with UFC.
Call it what you will, my take is that it would be better to cultivate and buildup new acquisitions before throwing them to the wolves. That way, you can try to offset the chance that they'll be rusty, unused to the rules, out of shape or whatever. If they bring Fedor in, he sure has a lot of potantial to sell PPV matches. I bet though that if they set him up with some "easier" opponents first to get him "warmed up", people will still buy the PPVs to see him beat the tar out of them. Then, when he's ready he will have an even bigger reputation/buildup/UFC fan recognition that when they do give him a title shot, that will equal even more PPV $$$$. I see the choice as generating a modest amount of quick PPV $ by bringing in new faces that are known to the hardcore few (the new UFC demographic is pretty wide, much beyond the hardcore few) or using the buzz and buildup to make these guys into bigger UFC stars and selling more PPVs before ever putting them into a dream match. Looking at Cro-Cop for example, I know he's one tough hombre and one of the top guys. I bought his PPV debut because I knew he'd beat his opponent. There was a lot of hype and the UFC did a nice job of presenting his background. For the average Joe who watches a few UFCs and doesn't follow much outside of that, I don't imagine he looked that great... and then he gets KO'd in his next match. For the average viewer this is a guy from the "other federation" who was supposed to come in and kick butt and take the title. What does that now do to the average fairly uninformed fan's perception of PRIDE and of the guys coming in from there? Anyway, that's my 2 cents. P.S. By the way, I prefer "armchair quarterback" to "general" for myself. I figure that since I pay to be entertained I get to pick my own title.
Indeed. I'm deeply suspicious of Dana White's treatment of Rampage and Cro Cop. Rampage really should have been given another one or two fights. I'm concerned that he won't deal well against Chuck so soon after moving to cage/elbows allowed (mostly the cage) will get beaten down badly.
He chased him down, shrugged off the few attacks Sanchez was brave enough to try, then knocked him out in the first round. After that fight, people were saying CroCop looked like a video game character on godmode. Sanchez made CroCop look very good, probably even better than he really is. Obviously the Gonzaga fight turned out differently, and CroCop did look unimpressive, but less than three years ago he looked even less impressive against Kevin Randleman. He came back, dominated almost all of his opponents, and only lost by decision (one split decision against Mark Hunt, a bad matchup for CroCop, and one unanimous decision against Fedor, who is Fedor) until now. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I don't think the cage had much to do with it. The elbows definitely did. I'm sure he'll be training defense against elbows heavily now.